The Playground
This is a project being worked on by CrybabyForLife/takemehome, if you would like to help create this album please ask first :) ''"The Playground" ''is the third studio album by Melanie Martinez The Playground is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Melanie Martinez. It was released on December 19th, 2020, through Atlantic Records, and Polydor Records. The album was preceded by the release of the singles “Figure Of Authority”, “Pink Slip pt. II” and “Blame”. Martinez supported the album with concert dates throughout Europe and North America. Background In November 2019, Martinez spoke to Stereogum that she was eager to work on new music, hoping to halve the production time consumed by her previous record. She cited a stroke of inspiration that wasn't apparent when development on her second studio album, K-12 began, which ultimately took two years to produce as Martinez sought creative control and an evolution in sound. She aimed to release new music by the next year. Work on her third studio album commenced in June 2020, where she traveled to Sweden on the first of four trips. Frameworking the project was the notion of how music is consumed in her own life, "which is sometimes a little more homestyle, playing on the playground by yourself”. Her relationship with photographer David Larkins came to an end during the same trip, which prompted Martinez to explore the melancholy that pervaded her life: “I think the album goes through that process of like, 'Shit, what do I do now?' And, at the same time, singlehood for the first time in a while, which I'm kind of new at! So there was an arc of like, full-on knee wounds to a new story. I think I do pull a lot of inspiration from the complexities of a recess-like society in all of its phases. It was a real painful thing in my life, but a real helpful thing for being inspired”. Martinez described producer Jack Antonoff, whom she met further along in the process, as being a "hero on this project, in terms of his production seeming really fresh to me and kind of dark in their tastes, and so it was fun to have these falsetto, almost more soft toplines on top of the dark production." Other contributors to the album include Jack Antonoff, Noonie Bao, Pontus Winnberg of Bloodshy & Avant and Captain Cuts. Early in development, Martinez was particularly looking forward to meeting Patrik Berger, being a fan of his work on Swedish singer Robyn’s 2010 single "Dancing On My Own”. Writing and development Under the working title of Songs To Beat Your Bully Up To, Martinez conceived the album as "an understated disco, basement kidnapping scenario", an inclination that arose from digging into ABBA’s back catalogue. These influences from the 1970s, namely Donna Summer and the Bee Gees, were channeled into an incarnation of the project titled Collages. It was shelved as Berger advised her against working too rigidly, Martinez expressing, "You might be shooting your bully in the foot and limiting where you can go." She further explained: “When I showed up with that mission statement that was so pigeonholed, it really wasn't helping the writing process. It was fun to get a few songs that landed naturally in that zone — I think 'Bullies' was the most understated disco song that made the album — but I think it was Patrik Berger who said, 'It'll be much more fun if you just allow yourself to play in all directions.' I knew at that time that I was gonna take a beat with this thing, so it felt like the right move to just experiment." By May 2020, Martinez had written "nearly 200 songs" for the album. Release and promotion On November 1, 2019, Martinez released "Figure Of Authority” the lead single from the album. On February 27, 2020, Martinez released “Pink Slip pt. II" as a single. "Pink Slip pt. II" was written at a writing camp in Nicaragua. A music video for the single was announced on March 14, 2019 but was eventually scrapped for unknown reasons. On March 31, 2020, Martinez teased an upcoming announcement on her social media accounts. On April 1, 2020, the album title and release date for The Playground were announced. On April 17, 2020, Martinez revealed the album's track listing and cover art. The album was made available to pre-order on April 19, 2020 along with the promotional single “Bullies”. “Blame” was released as the album's third single on May 9, 2020. The song's music video was released on May 17, 2020. Commercial performance The album debuted at No. 190 on the US Billboard Top 200, with 3,292 album-equivalent units, which included 1,500 pure album sales. The following week the album rose to number 5 with a sudden spike of 100,000 more copies sold in the next two weeks of its release. A week later the album ascended to number 2 after selling an extra 85,000 album-equivalent units. The week following the album dropped to number 13, and only after spending 6 more weeks in the top 20, the album fell off the charts completely and made several re-entries but failing to enter the top 40. Critical Reception The Playground received negative to average reviews; aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalized rating of 46, based on 34 critical reviews. However, for unknown reasons, the album was taken off of the site completely and has since to make a reappearance. Elenco tracce 1. Bulli 2. Slip rosa pt. II 3. Figura di autorità 4. Hell Slide 5. Gioco di ruolo 6. Colpa 7. Quattro Quadrati 8. Sindrome di Stoccolma 9. Strutture per arrampicata 10. Beat It 11. Di 'che sono io 12. Noi 13. Più of this 14. Uccidimi Nella Tua vasca da bagno 15. Fatto cosa ho 16. Buon compleanno Giosué (Deluxe Track) Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Category:Albums Category:2020 Category:Melanie Martinez